City of Villains Has
Gone Live announces that Cryptic's MMORPG follow-up is live: "City of
Villains is available in shops now in a special Collectors Edition, packed with
extra goodies, as well as the standard retail package. The monthly subscription
entitles gamers to play both City of Villains and City of Heroes®." Here's the
official announcement:

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 31, 2005—NCsoft® North America
announces that City of Villains™, stand-alone sequel to the hit massively
multiplayer online PC game City of Heroes®, has gone live in North America.
Developed by Cryptic Studios™ and published by NCsoft, City of Villains
introduces a host of new features including the ability to create massive evil
lairs from the ground up, and player-versus-player (PvP) zones where villains
can battle against hero players from the City of Heroes game.

City of Villains is available at retailers in North America at an anticipated
price of US$49.99 for its standard edition and US$69.99 for the feature-packed
collector’s DVD edition. Both editions include the first month of online game
play, and after the first month, players will be charged a monthly subscription
fee of US$14.99. Earlier this month NCsoft announced that existing City of
Heroes’ customers can purchase City of Villains and subscribe to both games for
the single subscription price of US$14.99.

“City of Villains’ players should have no trouble getting in touch with their
inner scoundrel,” said NCsoft CEO Robert Garriott. “And since customers can play
City of Heroes and City of Villains for one subscription price, it is also a
tremendous value.”

City of Villains was created in response to the number one request from
players…to be the bad guy. Cryptic Studios has answered that request with dark
and startling new costume options, and distinctly villainous missions including
heists, abductions and infiltrations. In addition to the robust base creator
feature, City of Villains will allow players to use their bases for special PvP
base raids. Once super groups obtain and store special items of power in their
bases, they will be forced to defend them from other intruding hero and villain
super groups.

“Though City of Villains is packed with new features, another key difference is
in how you approach your character,” said Jack Emmert, creative director at
Cryptic Studios and lead designer for City of Heroes and City of Villains.
“Players are going to have to be more aggressive and uncompromising. They will
quickly learn that survival is the name of the game, because as a villain you
are going to be the target of other villains, lawful authorities, rival gangs
and super powered-heroes. So the badder you are, the better you’ll be.”

I downloaded the beta client, setup my account, started the game and just sat there in the newbie area remembering why I quit COH in the first place. It was all coming back to me. I quit the game and uninstalled.